Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Works for Me Wednesday: ABLE Act

Here's the deal: In 1986, the IRS code created Section 529 which forbids the creation of tax-free savings accounts for persons with disabilities. In other words, parents, grandparents, and other cannot create a savings account in the name of a person with disabilities to be used for health care, education, and other living expenses. While it might not seem needed while a child's parents are alive, the advancements in therapy and treatments for people with disabilities is improving by leaps and bounds. This is awesome, but it means may kiddos with special needs are out living their parents and are left with nothing. This is not good!

The ABLE (Achieving a Better Life Experience) Act is a bipartisan, bicameral bill. It aims to make access to savings and care easier for all people. The details, and in fairly non-legal gargon, can be found here.

A change.org petition is currently active, seeking to have the ABLE act passed. Please take a moment to research more about the ABLE act, and if you agree with it, sign the petition, and ask others to do the same. Our government isn't all bad, nor is it incapable of seeing the good in well rounded change. Let's make sure that we allow parents the ability to know that their children will be well cared for long after they are gone!

Advocating for the rights of others works for me! Linking up with Kristen.